FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I was drooling over, I mean, looking at pictures of CP's when I got to Pinguicula's . I noticed that both P. esseriana and P. jaumavensis look very much alike. What are the differences between these two plants? Is it just the shape of the flower?

They are both Mexican Pinguicula and these can often look very similar; the flowers are usually the biggest difference between Mexican species and hybrids (more colour than shape but some have a very unique shape when compared to others). I've grown P. esseriana and had immense success with it but have not gotten my hands on a P. jaumavensis so cannot offer you any information from experience on it, unfortunately.

Here is one of my pots of Mexican pinguicula. It contains some small P. jaumavensis and one P. esseriana. I thought it might be helpful to you to see them side by side for comparison. My largest jaumavensis is almost the same size as my esseriana. Actually, all of last year the esseriana was small and pink. This year it has gotten much larger. I am not quite sure why. Maybe it is just maturing. I think I am due for some new T5's. That may be why my pings aren't quite as colorful as they usually are.

SEWinans, those are some of the most beautiful plants I have seen! Thank you very much for the picture, it is a big help. Your plants are outta this world.

It looks like you've got them in a peat/perlite mix, may I ask what mix you use for those pings?

Thank you very much for the kind words. My mix contains peat, washed silica sand, perlite, and dolomitic lime. I use the mix described here:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w ... mnqJ1lsXaA

Thank you very much, SEWinans!

I have also read from a couple CP suppliers and elsewhere on the internet that 'horticultural sand' and 'horticultural vermiculite' is used in the mix for Mexican Pings.

What the heck is the difference between 'horticultural sand' and just 'sand', and 'horticultural vermiculite' and just 'vermiculite'?

What does 'horticultural' mean?

Wonderful soil mix SEWinans, no wonder your plants look so absolutely gorgeous!

I did a quick search on your question, ironjaws, and apparently horticultural sand is "less likely to have salts and lime in it" whereas other sand, depending upon location of origin, can have these things in them in surprising amounts (more so if the quarry is by the sea RE: salt, of course).

Reading about vermiculite brought up a lot of health stuff so I'm not entirely sure about that; I think the size/surface area of the vermiculite can vary depending on what you get but, ultimately, I'm not sure. Sorry about that!

Grey, you are awesome! Thank you for taking the time to research my query! No worries, Grey, it's all good.